Rainbow Over the Moon

Chapter 5; Living Together

Sorry about the massively long wait, various reasons, a choice of being gay and not letting me do the wotsit so I couldn't update. General forgetting and …stuff. So sorry. No review replies today, next time I will for definite, my computer broke…massive panic to save all my coursework, but I did lose all my reviews. Arse.

If you'd like me to send you an alert when I update email me at , or AIM at kamikazekanga. Please r and r.

The following week passed uneventfully. The three inhabitants of the Cottage in the Forest on the Moor talked and ate and generally had fun. There was little awkwardness and it felt right to Harry, like he was living where he was supposed to. He was slowly growing out of his habit of being shocked whenever anyone did something nice for him and slowly eased into being a regular teenager. He didn't stammer asking questions anymore. After one talk with the two of them, explaining that 'the past was something that's always going to be there', you have to be able to answer questions on it. So as such, Remus, Sirius and Harry were working on exorcising Sirius' demons, Dementors and memories of Azkaban; sorting out Harry's various complexes and rifling through Remus' somewhat coloured history.

One such conversation had begun over lunch, which had been a delicious dish called kedgeree, which had been divine. It had prompted Harry to ask Remus, "Where did you learn to cook like this. It's gorgeous!"

"I was a chef once." Remus replied around his own mouthful of fish and rice.

"Really?" Sirius asked.

"One of my many jobs, it was a muggle job actually. Got fired in the end because of missing one night and day a month, and looking sickly sometimes. They thought I had some disease and didn't think it was appropriate to work in a kitchen. Good job was that." Remus explained, waving his fork around.

"Did not know that." Sirius said. "What else have you done?"

"Jobs?" Remus questioned. Sirius nodded. "Er…teacher, as you know, chef, librarian, barman, bouncer, researcher, shop assistant, pub manager. Exterminator. Dark creature hunter. Among many, many others. The highest I ever got in the ministry was writing papers on Magical Theory." He reeled off.

"Wait…wait, you were a bouncer?" Harry asked.

"Yep. At a wizarding club in Soho. They thought it might keep the riff raff out if they had a werewolf on the door. Worked for a while, but I resigned when I accidentally broke someone's arm. Plus, I think I scared a fair few punters off." Remus replied.

"Exterminator?" Sirius asked, raising a curious eyebrow.

"Yep. Got rid of problems basically, Dark creatures, regular creatures, spells, curses, enchantments. Anything." Remus explained as he scraped his plate.

"Dark creature hunter?" Sirius asked incredulously.

"Bit hypocritical, I suppose. It wasn't actual hunting…just finding lost or unregistered vampires, werewolves, anything that was…er…loose and shouldn't be. I liked that job though, I was helping people more. Which was why I got fired, I was hired because I was a werewolf and knew 'the mindset' or something, but I was a bit…rogue…I guess and stopped others like me…hunters, not werewolves…hunting to kill or imprison by warning their subjects. That's what they said when they fired me anyway." He explained and dug out dessert from a cupboard.

"Wow." Harry said. To Harry, who was only 14 and hadn't ever had a job, and Sirius who'd had about two before being carted off to Azkaban, this was a lot of jobs and a fairly shocking revelation. Harry knew Remus'd had problems with work, and Sirius had known since he'd met Remus, but the sheer amount of jobs in that small sample was a testament to just how long those jobs held out. But to Remus however, it had been his life for twelve years, a drifter if there ever was one and now he was rather content to enjoy his more permanent, well paid, if not risky, assignment.

"Mmm." So he simply replied distractedly to Harry's awe, and contemplated the chocolate fudge cake he had uncovered.

Harry, for once, was happy during summer and was enjoying it like a normal kid. The situation may not have been normal. Living with a werewolf and an Azkaban fugitive, generally wasn't, but the nights were significantly not normal, in a bad way.

Luckily the first few nights, the novelty of sleeping in a new room, his room, in a new house, with friendly people, staved off the nightmares, and Voldemort, by a wave of luck, left off the extreme emotions for a few nights.

Harry had arrived Thursday morning, and had four nights of uninterrupted sleep, except for the odd rising to go to the toilet. By Monday, the inevitable nightmares had returned.

Remus had blinked himself awake at around two in the morning, it took a moment for him to work out why. When he heard the muffled shouts and screams, he shot bolt upright in bed and dashed to Sirius' room.

He frowned in confusion when he saw his best friend sleeping peacefully and snoring. But then it hit him, Harry. It was Harry having the nightmare.

Turning on his heel and darting down the hall to Harry's room, his half asleep mind snapped awake. He skidded to a halt before he slammed into the desk and found Harry tossing and turning and fighting off an imaginary attacker. His cries and shouts were screams muffled by sleep.

"Harry! Harry! Wake up." Remus said, sitting on the edge of the bed. Harry didn't wake. When he put a hand on him, he stilled. "Harry." He repeated, and the teen slowly awoke.

"Wha…? Oh god…" He mumbled and put his face in his hands.

"You were having a nightmare…I came to check you were…alright." Remus said.

"Oh…I'm sorry I woke you. Its fine, just, go back to bed." Harry mumbled.

"No. Harry, talk to me if you need to. Pretend like you're writing the dreams in a letter like you were doing. Okay?" Remus said and tried uncurling the Harry-ball.

"Nmnph." Harry said.

"What? Come on Harry. Uncurl. I'll tuck you in. I won't be able to sleep if I'm worried about you here on your own." Remus wheedled.

"'K." Harry mumbled and lowered his arms so they looped about his ankles. "It was the Third task again. I was fighting Cedric…so he wouldn't take the cup. I was trying to keep him away. But I was too weak. I wasn't brave enough to do it myself." Harry said and his voice grew angry with himself. Remus stood and pulled the covers down so he could uncurl Harry some more and slide his legs under the duvet.

"You're not weak. And you're not 'not brave' enough. You're a Gryffindor and very brave and noble. Cedric would have gone alone had you not insisted on taking the cup together. I know you wouldn't have denied him his half in the winnings. And you know Cedric wouldn't have allowed you to let him go alone. That's what makes you good people. Cedric doesn't blame you. You know that." Harry nodded and gave a little sniff.

"Its alright to cry if you want to…come on kiddo." Remus murmured and sat down on the bed to give Harry a hug, unsure of how he would take it.

To his surprise the boy leaned into him and relaxed into the hug, but didn't cry.

Remus rubbed his back and just caught, thanks to his werewolf hearing, Harry say, "I'm not as Gryffindor as you think."

"Yes you are Harry. No matter what the hat says, you are a Gryffindor tried and true, with all the best traits of a Slytherin, if I may say so."

"How did you…" Harry asked as Remus lay him back against the pillows.

"We all have our secrets…shh, go back to sleep. I'll ward off the nightmares." Harry barely heard the last few soft words and slipped back to sleep, wondering what exactly it was about Remus Lupin that made him feel so warm and open.

Remus sat in the desk chair for a while, watching Harry sleep, before slipping silently back to his own room, listening all the while for any attacking nightmares on either his best friend or godson.